performance / Neja Tomšič
A storytelling guided tour of the Rafut Park, dedicated to stories of trees.
About the performance
More than 1100 trees grow in Rafut Park, known as one of the first exotic gardens on Slovenian territory. It is usually associated with the architect Anton Laščak and his villa, but the story of the park is older and, even after his departure, extremely rich. Until recently, Rafut Park, like any "abandoned and fenced off plot of land", was shrouded in mystery and its histories were intertwined. But in reality, the park has never been isolated. People visited and cared for it. Its trees bear witness to all this. The trees themselves have a rich symbolism, linked to myths, fairy tales and personal stories. In exotic and botanical gardens we usually read where the tree comes from, but what does it mean? Untangling a Garden III, designed as a guided tour of Rafut Park, where we will listen to the stories of trees. They will be narrated by Ana Duša, Silvia Viviani, Katja Šulc, Maja Čehovin Korsika, Ana Čavić, Katarina Nahtigal and Rok Kušlan, and accompanied by the vocal group Ardeo.
Credits
Idea and concept: Neja Tomšič
Storytellers: Neja Tomšič, Ana Duša, Ana Čavić, Maja Čehovin Korsika, Katja Šulc, Katarina Nahtigal, Rok Kušlan and Silvia Viviani
Vocalists: Vocal group Ardeo (Klara Kobal, Kristina Pregelj, Veronika Pregelj, Anja Siher, Mateja Mikluš, Maja Dobnik, Karin Luin)
Composer: Gašper Torkar
Dramaturgy: Tery Žeželj
Production support: Barbara Poček
The project is part of the official programme of the European Capital of Culture 2025 Nova Gorica - Gorizia and organised in collaboration with Slovene National Theatre Nova Gorica and KB1909.
About the Author
Neja Tomšič is a research-based visual artist, storyteller, performer and ritual maker, working with drawing, objects and sound, interested in long processes and slow work. Her practice reflects on dominant historical narratives, researches into particularities, and creates situations in which new understandings of the present can be formed.
She is the author of Opium Clippers, an artistic research project she has staged across 16 countries in more than 120 events. For her eponymous book, Tomšič won two awards for best artist’s book in Slovenia (P74 and Slovenian Book Fair, 2019). In 2022, her theatre essay Circle, coproduced by Bunker and Cluj Cultural Centre, was staged as part of the Stronger Peripheries international cooperation project.
She is a member of the Nonument Group, an art collective that maps, researches and intervenes into nonuments - public space, monuments and architecture that underwent a shift in meaning due to
political and social changes. The group was honoured with the Plečnik Medal, the highest national award for architecture and will be representing Slovenia at the Venice Biennale in 2026.
Neja also co-founded MoTA - Museum of Transitory Art, where she worked as a producer and international projects coordinator between 2007 and 2020, and was the director of SONICA festival from 2017 to 2021. She lives and works in Ljubljana.